Wood To Meat | Best Matches

[nikkon]

Hi folks,

I'm new here and very new to smoking :)
I'm cooking on a kamado grill and recently I purchased a fireboard drive controller.
Now my question is : is there guidance on how to match meet (beef, pork, chicken, fish ..) with wood (cherry, apple, ...)
Till now I just used whiskey barrel wood witch I can tell, does't work well with chicken (based on my taste)

Thanks in advance

 

[SmokinEdge]

Welcome from Colorado.

Smoke flavor is subjective to personal taste. In general though Alder and Beechwood are the most mild then fruitwoods and even Maple, these all work well with chicken and fish. Next strongest are nut woods such as pecan and oak, these work well with all red meats and for chicken to my taste. The strongest smoke woods would be Hickory and Mesquite, these work very well for beef and pork.

In almost all my BBQ and cured meat smokes I use 70% pecan and 30% Cherry. If I BBQ beef it’s almost always Mesquite.

Hope this helps.

 

[thirdeye]

Even though you might see charts that suggest certain woods with certain meats, choosing flavor wood is not an exact science. And when you burn lump charcoal, different brands produce different flavors themselves. So the best way to learn about the final smokiness of your meat is to start with a charcoal fire without any flavor wood and get a baseline of that flavor. B&B brown bag or Royal Oak lump are middle-of-the-road for mildness of smokiness.

Like SmokinEdge mentioned, I break flavors into fruitwoods, nut woods, and mesquite. And for me, I don't use mesquite wood... but I use mesquite charcoal plus flavor wood if I want a stronger flavor.

After you experiment with some lump charcoal brands, then introduce some flavor wood, which can be in chunks, smaller splits, or pellets. Using your kamado, large chunks need to be split down into smaller pieces. And by layering some chips or pellets within the lump, you will get gentle smoke for hours.

 

[tallbm]

Hi folks,

I'm new here and very new to smoking :)
I'm cooking on a kamado grill and recently I purchased a fireboard drive controller.
Now my question is : is there guidance on how to match meet (beef, pork, chicken, fish ..) with wood (cherry, apple, ...)
Till now I just used whiskey barrel wood witch I can tell, does't work well with chicken (based on my taste)

Thanks in advance

Hi there and welcome!

SmokinEdge and thirdeye gave some great input!

As he stated it will be based on taste preference per person but there are some general pairings that are really good.

I would take it with a grain of salt all the info you find saying "use Hickory or Oak" for everything. There is so more to wood flavoring and meat paring that such advice is almost a disservice.

Also the type of smoker and smoke generation used can affect strength of wood flavor and such so good thing you listed you are using a kamado.

Ok now on to my rapid fire wood to meat pairing list :D

• Maple - my favorite easy going, middle of the road, wood flavor. Good for basically anything and my go-to for sandwich/deli meats I smoke
• Maple 20%, Cherry 20%, Hickory 60% (MCH) - often used/known as a competition blend. Great for pork, chicken, and pretty much anything. I do my pulled pork, ribs, and chicken often with this blend.
• Mesquite - hands down the best wood/flavor for Beef!!!! Just know that Mesquite is also the strongest wood smoke so management of smoke and the amount you apply is important.
  I run 12 hours of 100% Mesquite pellet smoke on my briskets and it is never too strong, but my A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker tray manages perfect smoke the entire time. If you run chunks 12 hours in your smoker... I'm not sure you would have something edible lol.
  Also works well with chicken. Works fine with pork too but man with Beef, it's unbeatable!
• Hickory - probably the most popular wood smoke. Lots of people use nothing but it. I personally don't like more than 60-65% hickory on anything UNLESS I'm making a 100% hickory bacon.
  More than 60-65% hickory makes everything taste too much like bacon to me.
• Oak - it seems to be most people's favorite middle of the road, easy button, can't mess up too badly wood. It burns even, isn't too strong, is forgiving, and flavor is good. It's used non-stop in my neck of the woods so I've been burned out on Oak smoked BBQ for probably 2 decades now. I choose Maple over Oak to fit this need.
• Alder - great for fish. I use it for Salmon Lox and for my Hot smoked Salmon.
• 70% Apple / 30% Hickory - this is my favorite cured smoke sausage and bacon mix
• I have Apple and Cherry and I like them best mixed with things as they are a little weak on their own. I will use them for fish sometimes. Cherry gives amazing red color.
• Pecan - I have it but it never gave enough flavor for me so I just blend it in at times to use it up. Also I feel it gives things a brownish color where cherry gives things a nice reddish or mahogony color

There you go, my little wood write up.
Also, take it with a grain of salt when you find the tired ass "smoke at 225F smoker temp..." for like everything you read. This is pretty much a disservice too.
Pork butts, ribs, brisket, chucks, and plenty of other cuts of meat don't care what temp you smoke them at, as long as you aren't burning them.
Skin on Poultry (chicken/turkey) wants a hot temp (325F) or else the skin will not be so edible. Do a skin on chicken at 225F and prepare to have leather/rubber skin.

So ask any/all questions you have and folks will get you squared away. This is the best source of BBQ info the world! :D

 

[jcam222]

For me cherry and / or apple is great for everything. I am getting some hickory but only for things like bacon and ham. I will try a mix of cherry and hickory for beef too. Overall I've done everything for the last year with cherry and it's great. In my opinion the whole certain woods for certain meats is over blown with the exception of mesquite and to some degree hickory which are more pronounced specific flavors.

 

[nikkon]

Thank you all for the replies. I have plenty of information now. I will start experimenting. Super helpful.